French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety

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Analytical methods for food

Working Group (WG)

The Working Group (WG) on Analytical methods for food reports to the CES on Assessment of the physical and chemical risks in foods.
The work done by this Working Group involve the following topics:

The assessment (in terms of effectiveness, soundness, etc.) of the analytical methods (analytical protocols, method validation, choice of equipment, etc.) used for determining the levels of contaminants in food, in order to estimate the exposure and characterise the health risks for the French population of the analytes. These contaminants can be of anthropogenic or natural origin (from production through consumption). For example, they can be substances in materials intended for contact with foodstuffs, plant protection products, environmental contaminants or veterinary medicinal products.

The WG's assessments can also be on general, cross-cutting or emerging topics related to chemical risks in foods (contaminants, additives, contact materials, etc.):

Recommendations issued on the analytical methods used and on the quality of the contamination data generated;

Methodological studies in the general area of contaminant measurement in foods: measurements of mixtures, newly-formed substances, integration of blank values, etc.